Court Approves Rehabilitation Procedure for JTBC... Submission of Rehabilitation Plan Set Until Next January

The court has decided to commence corporate rehabilitation procedures (court receivership) for general programming channel JTBC.

The Seoul Bankruptcy Court's Rehabilitation Division 2 (Presiding Judge Jeong Jun-young) announced on the morning of the 28th that it terminated JTBC's Autonomous Restructuring Support (ARS) program and decided to initiate rehabilitation procedures for the company.

JTBC previously requested the ARS program when it applied for rehabilitation procedures with the court last July, and the court accepted it, putting the decision on whether to commence rehabilitation procedures on hold.

The court explained the reasons for the decision as the growth of platforms such as online video services (OTT) following COVID-19, rising production costs including appearance fees and labor costs, and the contraction of the broadcasting advertising market. In addition, the court noted that large-scale expenditures resulting from Olympic broadcasting rights fees and the liquidity crisis across the Joongang Group also had an impact.

The court decided not to appoint a separate administrator and to maintain the current executive system.

However, it attached a prerequisite that the current management could be replaced if grounds for culpability are revealed.

The deadline for submitting the list of creditors has been set for October 8, and the claim filing period runs until November 6.

The Creditors' Committee will be composed of the company's major creditors, and a Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) appointed upon the recommendation of the Creditors' Committee will supervise the company's cash flow and other financial matters.

The deadline for submitting the rehabilitation plan is January 29 of next year.

The financial crisis of the Joongang Group previously erupted when JTBC declared a default in June after failing to repay asset-backed borrowings totaling 20.6 billion won upon maturity.

With the initiation of JTBC's rehabilitation procedures today, five affiliates of the Joongang Group, including Joongang Holdings, Contentree Joongang, Joongang P&I, and Megabox Joongang, have entered rehabilitation procedures.

Joongang Ilbo has received a decision to commence corporate restructuring work (workout).
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.